Buffy  The Gift
by ShaelynTheSlayer
Summary: A rewriting of Season 5: Episode 22: The Gift. Pretty much the same as the original episode, but with some hints of Spike/Buffy ideas.


**NOTE: This is based off of my memory of Season 5: The Gift episode. The order of some events, as well as some of the lines, may be slightly off. Also, I led the story along with a few Spuffy hints, but I still tried to keep it as close to the original scene as possible.**

**I DO NOT OWN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER! However, I do own this writing, so don't even think about stealing it!  
**

I slammed my fist into the god's face, again and again. She was the one who would have killed my sister. She had hunted us down, nearly destroyed us. She would die now.

And then, the hated face melted away, into the body of a human.

"Ben," I whispered, disgusted at Glory's desperate transformation. And yet, her ploy worked. As long as he was Ben the human, I could not kill Glorificus the god. I could never kill a human. Never. Not like Faith.

He was barely recognizable, bruised, broken, and covered in his own blood. I stood up, glaring with contempt before I turned my gaze away from him.

_Dawn._ I swung back up onto the stairs of the tower, my boots clattering in a frenzied, unorganized rhythm as I sprinted.

Spike was falling, falling from the very top where he had tried to protect my sister. His black leather coat fanned out around his body, batlike. He crashed into the concrete pavement at the bottom. Though my body did not stop moving, my mind suddenly froze. My thoughts stayed on him as I ran, my eyes watching, waiting.

_I was so close,_ I thought. _So close to falling for you…._

And then he stood back up, unfazed by the scarlet streaks webbing across his head. Even from the distance, I saw the exact pattern of his cut. And it killed me that with every step I took, I was moving farther from him.

A scream split the air. My attention was refocused to what mattered: my sister. I leaped the final steps, landing with the lightest thud at the top of the unstable tower.

A man with a long, ornamented knife turned away from Dawn, smiling at me. I immediately saw the shallow slivers he had incised into Dawn's stomach. My blood boiled with anger, incensed by the same fire that burned when I had fought Glory. I don't know what moves I made, but the demon with the knife was suddenly plummeting to the ground and to his death.

Dawn collapsed into my arms as I cut her bonds. I inspected her cuts, all too aware of the blood slowly spilling out. The dark drops rolled down, off the edge of the platform, falling to create our doom.

Dawn's white face slowly lifted, her gaze burning into mine with unparalleled intensity. She knew. She knew that that portal had to have the blood, _all of it_, or it would never close. All Hell would be let loose, until my sister was a drained corpse.

She tried to break out of my arms, taking a step to the edge of the platform.

My grip tightened on her. "What are you doing?" I demanded.

Tears rolled out of her wide, scared eyes. "It… it has to have the blood," she whispered, her voice high with hysteria. "Once it starts going, it'll never stop!" Sobbing, she added, "You know you have to let me."

"_Because it's always got to be blood." Spike's eyes were solemn as he answered Xander. "Blood is _life_. It's what keeps you warm, keeps your heart going. Of course it's blood."_

_Sitting on the hospital bench, I held Dawn's bloodied hand in mine. "It's Summers' blood," I told her. "It's just like mine."_

_I was trying to explain to Giles. "She's not just my sister. She's _ME._ The monks made her out of me."_

_The fire glittered under the black desert sky, as the ancient Slayer watched me from the other side. The answer came from her mouth, the answer to everything I had asked, and yet just another riddle. "Death is your Gift."_

Death. Death is my Gift. I understood.

I touched Dawn's hair, caressing it the way I always had in our sister moments… the way I always had, regardless of the fact that she had not really been there. She was my sister. In reality, she was a blob of mystical green energy. But she was my sister.

I turned, facing the vermilion sun-colored light that was not really the sun coming out of the clouds. And then I saw the pool of electric-blue open in midair, the portal to all dimensions of Heaven and Hell.

I looked back at her. Realization flashed in her eyes.

"Buffy… _No_ –" she protested.

"Dawnie, I have to," I insisted. My resolution was made, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"NO!" she interrupted.

"Dawn, listen to me. There's not a lot of time left, listen!" And I told her everything. I told Giles that I'm okay, that I'm not afraid. I told everyone how much I love them. And I told them the truth that I finally understood: that Death is my gift.

"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it," I whispered. "Be brave, Dawn. Live. For me."

Suddenly I was running, running to the edge, digging my boots into the floor to gain speed. I had to close the portal. _I'm the Slayer. I save the world; it's what I do. This is my gift to the people I love._

As I plunged down, a torrent of wind against my body, a million thoughts flickered in my mind, a million emotions tingling inside me. My love for Dawn, for Giles, for Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya. For my mom, to whom I had made a promise, a vow to protect Dawn until the very end.

My last thought was that that same love, the love that had led me to my ultimate sacrifice, reached out to a certain soulless vampire who had also held his promise.

And then I entered the sapphire blaze.

(C) ShaelynTheSlayer 2010


End file.
